Kari is a compassionate girl on the geeky side with budding culinary talents. After her family had to move halfway across the country, Kari is unable to adjust in her new high school where she is an outcast. Repeatedly forced to do group assignments...
Milo was indeed absent again. The rumors continued among students. It seemed like everyone knew what happened, which also upset Kari. She remembered Milo's words about his past experiences with the Pacer. 'Not hearing the end of it for weeks.' At this point, the only hope she had was that Milo was simply so ashamed of his performance and afraid of the reactions upon his return that he was skipping school. But those rumors were getting to her... it was hard to hold onto that one shred of hope.
Time moved at a crawl, but at last the day was over. On the bus, she heard yet more rumors. She put her earbuds in to ignore them and imagined weird scenarios to make herself feel better.
But then, when Kari got off of the bus... she spotted a familiar figure sitting on the curb across the street.
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"Milo!?"
"Hi Kari... I was hoping you'd be here." he soughed, pushing aside his unkempt hair so he could see better. Of course, his hair is never neat, but normally it didn't just fall over his face like that. He looked even paler than usual, if that was even possible.
Kari ran up to him, her worries only eased marginally. In fact she started feeling even more concerned when she watched him get up. He looked so weak he might topple over from a light breeze. And she might've just been imagining it, but he looks... thinner. Not thin, far from it. Thinner.
"I'm so glad to see you..."
He said that but looked slightly relaxed at best. With a chill running down her spine, Kari felt an impulse to lunge at Milo and hug him. But... it would be awkward to suddenly hug a boy, right? Even though she considers him her closest friend? But why is that, 'awkward'? Because... society... says... so...?
She didn't act on it. Instead, she broke out interrogating.
"Where have you been!? What happened—?! Are— are you alright? You look— well, to be frank you look horrible! You look like you wrestled with a bear or something! Why weren't you at school the last few days? I-I was—"
"—Sorry, yeah, I know it's been days or whatever. I don't wanna... talk about that..." He rubbed his eyes. Everything that came out of his mouth sounded breathy and feeble. "...I do... need to talk to you about... something though. Something important."
Kari nodded, her stomach full of knots. "Oh... sure. Anything. What is it?"
"I only want you to hear it. So... can we... go... uh. Somewhere. I d-dunno."
Kari had to try so hard to keep cool, this did not feel good. "How about my house? It's down the street at the corner."
"Oh... that's what I was thinking, but I was afraid to ask." he said. "No one's home, right?"
"No, my parents are working. That's why I suggested it."
"Okay... good..."
Kari kept herself as slow as Milo's unusually sluggish gait beneath the smoky-white overcast sky. They didn't say a word to each other. There was no telling what this was going to be. All she can tell for sure is that something is horribly wrong. And she absolutely did not have a good feeling about it.
